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today’s the day.
he’ll finally gain the courage and send the coffeehouse owner next door a bouquet of flowers that wholeheartedly expresses his true feelings.
then, he’ll finally be able to woo the pretty boy and have him in his arms and—
“taehyung-ah, are you even listening to me?”
“huh?” taehyung snaps out from his reverie and nearly crushes the amaryllis in his hands.
namjoon pinches the bridge of his nose. “as i was saying, i’m gonna go next door to drink some coffee now. i’ll be back in an hour.”
taehyung nods in response. despite liking the beautiful boy with the prettiest face he’s ever seen (sorry, jimin), he absolutely /loathes/ coffee.
when the coffeeshop — Min’s Cafe— first opened, his brother had invited him to come along and visit.
an invitation he had politely declined.
an invitation he now, regrets turning down.
taehyung first saw the boy when he saw namjoon talking to him while he was preparing to do some deliveries.
he’s an entire head shorter than namjoon (which means he’s at the perfect height for cuddling!), a mop of black hair on his head and the sweetest gummy smile with the squishiest-looking cheekies on display.
(taehyung may or may not bumped into a pole after looking at the boy)
“make sure to come back on time, hyung,” taehyung says, arranging a few flowers for an order. “the last time you said that, you came back an hour late.”
“it isn’t my fault,” namjoon huffs
“are you sure it isn’t because you were busy flirting with jimin?” taehyung rolls his eyes. namjoon is way too obvious.
his brother blushes. “i talk to yoongi-hyung too, y’know.”
right. the name of the cute boy is min yoongi.
he’d learnt it through jimin during one of their first few lunches together.
taehyung and jimin had met after jimin had dropped by their shop to deliver some drinks and pastries as a gift from their opening. after that day, they’d been best friends. practically attached by the hip. platonic soulmates, if you will.
namjoon, of course, started to grow a crush on him. with his soft features and kind nature; it’s kind of hard not to.
and with namjoon crushing on his best friend, at the same time he had also gained one on a certain coffeehouse owner.
but even with two of the closest people in his life being close to the boy, taehyung never had a full conversation with him.
“right. see you, joon-hyung.” he smiles. namjoon returns an equally pleased dimpled smile before he heads out through the door.
taehyung finishes the customer's order, before carefully placing it in the delivery box. he’ll ask namjoon to do the deliveries later.
now.. to think about what flowers he should use in the bouquet for yoongi.
being a florist has its perks; besides being able to work in a calm, tranquil environment where it smells good 24/7, there is also the beautiful language of flowers that exists for him to explore and experiment with to his heart’s content. it had definitely not been easy for taehyung to learn the meaning of each and every single flower, but he can remember most now by working hard during his school years.
with that, he puts his knowledge to use, wishing that he can hopefully arrange a nice bouquet to signify a start to their friendship, in which he hopes will blossom into something more.
grabbing his basket, he starts to walk over to the greenhouse at the back of the shop, breathing in the fresh scent of earth and flowers as he enters.
he makes his way over to the alstroemerias, their light pink petals seemingly reaching out to him as he makes work of gently snipping the stems off. for the hopes of a flourishing friendship , he thinks.
humming softly as he works, taehyung cuts a few stalks of ranunculus and pink roses, for radiance and gentleness. it suits yoongi. he smiles to himself as he starts to picture the bouquet’s arrangement in his head. his hand hovers over the tulips for awhile, contemplating if he should add one into the bouquet. tulips are well known as declarations of love between crushes and new lovers.
would it be too early?
it won’t hurt to put one in the middle, right? after all, it’s not as if yoongi would know unless he searched for the meaning. taehyung has a crush on him, what harm can it do?
and so with a huff of confidence, taehyung grasps a tulip from one of the best batches he had ever grown.
⚘
after arranging the bouquet according to the image he had imagined earlier, taehyung thinks that this may be one of his best works. the single tulip is in the middle of the bouquet, somehow seemingly fitting and makes itself pop out.
yoongi will love it.
he wraps the bouquet, ties a pretty bow to attach it together and writes “for Min Cafe’s lovely owner” on the tag.
taehyung giggles as he looks at his final work. ah, he feels like a school boy confessing to his first crush.
he continues to daydream until he hears the bell on the door jingle.
“ah, hyung! you’re actually back on time.” namjoon rolls his eyes. “now that you’re here, i’m gonna run some, uh, errands.”
“errands?”
but he’s already halfway out the door, bouquet in hand. “it’ll only take awhile!”
the door shuts behind taehyung, the bell jingling. “now, to do the ‘errand’.”
he walks over to the coffeehouse, immediately glancing into the windows to take a peak.
jimin’s behind the cashier register talking to a customer. yoongi’s nowhere to be seen.
perfect.
he carefully places the bouquet in the box outside of the coffeehouse that yoongi had installed — when asked, jimin said he had no idea why the coffeehouse owner had added it either — and looks around to see if anyone might have spotted him.
satisfied, he takes a glance at the window again, just in time to see yoongi come out from the backroom. he’s heading towards the entrance. uh oh.
taehyung panics and immediately heads back to the shop.
“woah there, you look like you just ran a marathon.” namjoon says, pointing at his sweaty face. when did he even start to sweat?
“i only walked to the coffeehouse.” he places his hands on his hips, taunting his brother. but namjoon simply rolls his eyes and continues to work.
taehyung goes behind the counter, checking off the list of customers they need to deliver flowers to, when suddenly yoongi enters his thoughts again.
what would the boy’s reaction be? would he smile prettily, eyes wide as he sees the bouquet? or would he eye it with confusion? taehyung personally prefers the former.
“taehyung-ah, you’re daydreaming again.” namjoon’s voice drones from the greenhouse, where he’s checking up on the seedlings.
“whatever.” he retorts, putting the checklist away. “anyway, it’s your turn to do the deliveries now, hyung.”
“but i did them yesterday?”
“you went to the coffeehouse today.” taehyung points at him, accusingly. “you know what, i’ll just do it.”
he huffs and he’s out the door, head full of thoughts about the boy next door.
⚘
“tae-ah, what did you do on your ‘errand’ yesterday?”
taehyung looks up from the book he’s reading.
oh no. did namjoon catch onto his crush?
“um, errands, obviously.”
namjoon quirks an eyebrow. “are you sure?”
taehyung starts to break out into a cold sweat. he can never lie to his brother. not because he’s a bad liar, but the look that namjoon gives just makes him want to spill his guts. it’s like a secret superpower that his brother has, for some reason.
“fine! i went to the coffeehouse next door.”
“what? but i thought you didn’t like coffee. the last time i asked you to come with me, you told me ‘bold of you to assume i’d like to stay in a place where they have coffee everywhere.’”
“aha,” he says, scratching the nape of his neck. “about that. i didn’t actually go inside.”
“so you did do it.” namjoon sighs — he sounds exasperated.
“um, did what, hyung?”
namjoon takes something — it looks like a crumpled piece of paper — out from his pocket. taehyung’s stomach drops when his brother uncrumples it, unfolding the paper to present a message taehyung instantly recognizes to be his handwriting.
it’s his note.
okay taehyung. play it cool.
“uh, cool?” he chuckles, nervously. “where did you find that?”
“i didn’t find it,” namjoon says, fiddling with the paper. “yoongi-hyung did.”
fuck. fucking fuck why did namjoon manage to end up with the paper and not yoongi?
“yoongi-ssi found it?”
“yeah. not only that, but he thought that i was the one who wrote it.” namjoon scrunches his nose in thought. “it went a little bit like this, you see.”
(“namjoon-ah, i didn’t know that you felt this way?”
namjoon turns to look at yoongi, who’s sitting beside him, clutching a piece of paper in his hand. “huh, what do you mean?”
“uh, well, i assume that you have quite strong feelings for me based on the flowers picked in the bouquet and the note attached—“ yoongi turns red, stammering his reply.
“wait lemme see that.” namjoon snatches the paper out of yoongi’s grip, reading the content of the paper rather hurriedly. he turns red as well after reading it and recognizing the flowers specifically picked for the bouquet. the implications of the flowers sent by the sender are quite strong in hinting at certain, non-friendly feelings.. “w-wait, yoongi-hyung, i swear it isn’t me.”
“um, this is awkward, then.”)
“—and then i apologized to him for making him assume it was me who sent it and immediately ran here.”
taehyung winces. it must’ve happened a few minutes before namjoon barged in. big yikes.
“yeah, so, i’m guessing you were the one who sent it since the flowers are also a dead giveaway.”
taehyung groans. “i fucked up before it even started. i forgot to write my name on the paper.”
“woah, tae, it’s alright. you can still explain the situation to him.” namjoon pats his shoulder, comfortingly. “hyung’s a really great person, so he’ll understand.”
he sniffles, before nodding. tomorrow, kim taehyung will stop being a coward and confront his crush of a few months. kim taehyung will ask him on a date.
kim taehyung will—
kim taehyung will stand outside of min yoongi’s coffeehouse. the letter that namjoon returned to him in one hand, another freshly-made bouquet in the other.
he’s going to wing it. definitely.
.
..
...
.....
..........
he does Not wing it.
taehyung woke up early in the morning, had a hot shower and spent literally 30 fucking minutes styling (and restyling!) his hair. he barely gets a bite of food before he leaves his apartment, quickly running to the train station.
(he feels like the main protagonist in an anime.)
he nearly slams the door open when he reaches his shop, almost toppling over the plants at the entrance. namjoon would come at a later time, which was ironic as taehyung gets woken up by him almost everyday and never the other way round.
clearing his thoughts of his brother, he heads to the greenhouse, a new thought entering his head. this time it’s much more pleasant.
he can see a gummy smile, pretty, fluffy black hair which makes the person’s cat-like eyes stand out and squishy cheeks that taehyung just wants to pinch all day.
this time round, he had carefully cut the stems of a few asters, red carnations, some freshly grown peonies from the sunny side of the greenhouse and his best-smelling gardenias. taehyung had arranged the bouquet to the best of his abilities as he hummed to a popular girl group song.
he set the bouquet aside, patting himself on the back for his performance. taehyung giddly smiled as he thought about yoongi’s reaction.
despite that, it all came crashing down when he stepped into Min’s Cafe to deliver his bouquet at the end of the day.
⚘
“an order from... an anonymous client?” yoongi stares at the bouquet in his arms.
“yeah.” taehyung says, his feet shuffling on the checkered tiles of Min’s Cafe. taehyung has only been to yoongi’s coffeehouse a couple of times while visiting jimin on his lunch breaks. despite being the afterhours of a working day, he can see why people are attracted to the small coffeehouse. its ambiance is cozy and homy, the furniture and lighting creating a comforting atmosphere with the smell of freshly brewed coffee blended altogether. it just creates the perfect environment of a coffeehouse.
“i hope you like the bouquet! i’m gonna leave now, so—“
“wait, taehyung-ssi.” yoongi mumbles, catching his wrist. “um, i think you’re lovely, too, and i uh, admire you a lot as well.”
wait .
“y-you.. know what the bouquet means?” taehyung feels his cheeks start to heat up in embarrassment. so much for the anonymous client excuse.
“um, yeah.” yoongi scratched the back of his ears. taehyung figures it’s a nervous tick he has. “i was kinda interested in it back in my early childhood years since my grandparents used to own a large garden back home, but i guess coffee ended up being my true calling.”
“oh... that explains how you thought namjoon-hyung sent you that bouquet..” yoongi laughs nervously in response. “well yoongi-ssi, since my feelings are out in the open now, would you want to maybe.. go on a date with me?” taehyung asks, feeling his heart flutter. yoongi’s hold on his wrist tightens.
“i would love to.” his cute gummy smile is on display, making it hard for taehyung to kiss yoongi right then and there. “oh and if you don’t mind, you can drop the formalities and call me hyung. nicknames are welcomed too!”
taehyung internally squeals.
“okay, yoonie-hyung!” taehyung laughs, yoongi’s tinkling laughter joining in.
“yoongi-hyung! if you’re just gonna stand there flirting with the neighbors i hope you’re prepared to increase our paychecks!” yoongi’s sweet smile turns into a pout of annoyance.
(no thoughts head yoongi pouting only.)
taehyung’s comes back down to earth as he hears “yah jungkook-ah, i can literally climb over this counter and kick your ass right now!”
he watches yoongi and a bunny-toothed employee banter from one of the couches available. he feels the space beside him dip and an arm wraps an around his back in a familiar way, immediately recognizing said person as jimin without having to look at him.
“finally managed to ask him out, huh?”
“yup. it took awhile but i did it after yoongi-hyung thought that it was joon-hyung who sent the bouquet to him. you never told me that he knew the language of flowers, bitch." scoffs taehyung, though there is no malice in his words.
“i swear i didn't know! anyway, congrats taetae! now i’m just waiting for my turn, hopelessly waiting for your ever oblivious brother to finally come around and just admit his feelings.”
“ you could make the first move too, you know.”
“wouldn’t make it more fun, now would it?” jimin grins, cheekily. “the chase makes my life way more exciting.”
taehyung rolls his eyes fondly, knowing how much jimin and namjoon make each other happy even if they aren’t dating yet. he looks at his phone to see a couple texts with a passive aggressive tone that makes him shrink on himself.
ur my big bro! boogie woogie
taehyung
if i don’t see you in 10 minutes ^_^
oh fuck, namjoon’s gonna kill him.
“yoongi-hyung!” yoongi momentarily stops his verbal fight to look at tae. “let’s exchange numbers!”
“o-okay!”
after a few fleeting glances and giggles, taehyung finally has the number of the boy of his dreams (daydreams?) in his phone. he coos at the picture yoongi has taken and chooses for his contact id. yoongi flusters, quickly shoving his phone to taehyung to put in his. he takes a selfie, naming himself “taetae”.
(yoongi squeaks when he sees his contact name on taehyung’s phone)
“bye, taetae.” yoongi fidgets with his fingers as they stand outside of his coffeeshop. “and thank you again, for the flowers. i never knew you felt that way until i received that first bouquet the other day.”
“it’s fine, hyung. but i think the fact that you understood the meaning of the flowers i arranged for your bouquet sped up the process!” he winks. yoongi’s cheeks flame up for what must’ve been the 1749395th time that day. “um, i’ll text you the details for the date. see you, yoon-hyung!”
“bye! see you, tae!” yoongi grins, brightly, like a sunflower facing the sun.
taehyung waves as he enters his shop, immediately squealing as the door closes.
namjoon and a customer stares at him.
taehyung sheepishly bows to the customer and speedwalks to the greenhouse.
once in the safety of the greenhouse, he hears his phone chime.
petal yoon
hi
is this tae?
tae
omg hi
yeah it is!!
petal yoon
ok whew!! :D
so umm i just wanna tell u that once ur done with whatever namjoon has for u.. cld u come by the coffeeshop?
i baked a batch of cookies and brewed a cup of tea for you to bring home later on ^^
tae
!!!!yoon hyung u didnt have to do that for me!!!
petal yoon
i wanted to… as thanks for the bouquet
tae
okay!! i’ll definitely come by then later
ur so cute hehe
we can also discuss the plans for out date later too
taehyung fawns over yoongi’s cuteness. as promised, he goes over next door after a couple of grueling hours of cleaning up the shelves. yoongi has wrapped the cookies in an adorable paper bag with a small “for taetae <3” scribbled in his scratchy handwriting on a tag. he drinks the tea, talking more with yoongi as they discuss the type of restaurant they’d be going to and the activities they’ll be doing together. taehyung’s heart pounds the entire time, his grin growing each time yoongi bashfully reacts in such an adorable manner to his compliments.
he texts yoongi on the way home, too, unable to stay away from him for long. he learns anything and everything about yoongi as they call late into the night, all about yoongi’s adorable (fried-chicken-looking) dog and how he had grown to love flowers with his grandmother, being taught all the names and meanings of each one they grew. yoongi in turn finds about namjoon and jimin’s mutual crush on eachother, and the main reason of why tae didn’t come on the opening day of his coffeeshop—
(“you dislike coffee?”
“yeah, that’s why i didn’t come. sorry, i really wished i did now that i think about it.”
“hm, maybe if you did, we would be kissing by now.”
“you’re making me regret not going now, petal.”)
—oh and, taehyung unconsciously started to call yoongi “petal” after inputting it in his contact name, blissfully unknowing of the effect it has on the boy.
and when they’ve said their goodbyes in the early hours of the night, taehyung hugs his pillow as he stares at the ceiling. he thinks about yoongi and their upcoming date, lulling into a deep sleep filled with dreams of sunflowers and a gummy grin forming on a boy he has came to adore. unbeknownst to him, said boy places the bouquet in a glass vase on his night stand, smelling the flowers that remind him of the boy of his dreams, too.